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AMD and Intel have been in a race to stuff their highest-end processors with as many cores as possible, and it appears that this one-upmanship isn't about to end any time soon -- much to your advantage. As Macworld UK notes, Intel is close to releasing a new range of Xeon E5 processors where more cores (and thus more parallel computing power) is par for the course. According to ChipLoco's leaked roadmap, even the lowest-spec chips start with six cores versus today's four; the best model touts a whopping 18, which should help heavy-duty systems juggle a huge number of simultaneous workloads.

Bragging rights are a tricky thing. It's easy to say that you're the first or best, but backing up that claim is another matter. Take MSI's brand new WS60, for example. The company bills the 15-inch laptop as the "world's thinnest and lightest mobile workstation," and it's definitely on the featherweight side at 0.78 inches thick and 4.36 pounds. There's only one problem: it's actually a runner-up. Dell's Precision M3800 is both slimmer (0.71 inches) and lighter (4.15 pounds), so that's the machine you want in your bag if sheer portability is the major deciding factor.

The new Mac Pro's highly customized design may look like it's a pain to fix, but don't be fooled -- it's friendlier than you think. An iFixit teardown of the workstation has revealed that it's easy to take apart, and that several components can be replaced without going through Apple. It's also more upgradeable than you'd expect. iFixit has confirmed OWC's discovery that the Xeon processor is replaceable, saving buyers over $1,000 if they splurge on a 12-core chip. Other findings? The PCI Express-based SSD looks very familiar, and the entire system is very power efficient; despite the high-end CPU and dual graphics cards, the Mac Pro only needs a 450W power supply. No one will mistake Apple's machine for an easily expandable gaming rig, but it's clearly built with serviceability in mind.

HP's 2012 mobile workstation range was powerful, but would we have called it exciting? Not exactly. The company may just liven things up with its new ZBook line, however. The three-laptop series is based on a thinner and lighter design template that includes a 14-inch Ultrabook variant, the ZBook 14 (pictured above). Basically, Dell's Precision M3800 now has a big-name competitor. Those willing to trade some portability for power will also get a few welcome additions. The mid-size ZBook 15 (after the break) has a 3,200 x 1,800 display option, while both the ZBook 15 and the flagship ZBook 17 carry Thunderbolt ports.

All three PCs ship with Haswell-based Intel processors as well as the latest pro graphics from either AMD or NVIDIA. Mobile workers can order the 15- and 17-inch ZBooks today, or wait for the 14-inch system's arrival in late October. You'll find more details of HP's workstation updates after the break, including a more conservative refresh to the Z desktop line that brings Ivy Bridge-based Xeon processors and Thunderbolt 2.

Remember that Haswell-powered Dell workstation that popped up last week? The company is officially ready to acknowledged its silicon, announcing on its corporate blog that the machine is being unveiled at SIGGRAPH this week. Dell is still reluctant to get into specifics, but confirmed on a teaser page that the Precision M3800 would contain a 4th Generation Intel Core-i7 CPU, NVIDIA Quadro graphics and a 3,200 x 1,800 QHD+ multi-touch IGZO display. Even better, all that is set to fit into a tight 0.7-inch chassis that weighs in at 4.5 pounds. Mum's still the word on specifics, but previous leaks assigned the machine 15GB of RAM and either a 1TB HDD or a 512GB SSD. Dell hasn't let the workstation's price slip either, but we don't expect it to be cheap -- nothing thin and powerful ever is.

NVIDIA's just launched its latest flagship Quadro GPU for well-heeled graphics professionals, the Kepler-based Quadro K6000. The company claims it's "the fastest and most capable GPU ever built" with double the graphics capability of its Quadro 6000 predecessor. It also has 12GB of the "world's largest and fastest" DDR5 graphics memory, enabling companies like Nissan to load nearly complete vehicle models, for instance. Other niceties include 2,880 streaming multiprocessor cores, four simultaneous displays at up to 4K resolution, ultra-low latency video I/O and large scale visualization support. It'll hit the market this fall from workstation vendors like HP, Dell and Lenovo, along with system integrators and distribution partners like PNY. There's no pricing yet, but the current K5000 runs about $2,250 -- so, prime your budget expectations accordingly.

According to a source speaking to Dutch site Tweakers.net, which has been spot on with a previous Dell leak, a new laptop known as the M3800 is set to join Dell's Precision range of workstations. An Intel Core i7-4702MQ (Haswell) processor will reportedly power the M3800, with a 2GB NVIDIA Quadro K1100M GPU taking care of graphics. It's expected to come with up to 16GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive or 512GB SSD and two options for the 15.6-inch screen: a 3,200 x 1,800 resolution or a 1080p panel as the base option. The workstation is said to measure 18mm (around 0.7 inches) at its thickest point, and tip the scales at 2kg (4.4 pounds). Integrated docking found on other Precision models is apparently not in the M3800's feature set; it's also missing an Ethernet port, so hard-lines will need to be connected via a USB intermediate. Tweakers.net lists an expected price range of $1,699 to $1,999, but now comes the part where we wait for the M3800 to go official and see how correct all this leaked info is.

Update: Dell has now provided us with a statement that confirms that the M3800 is indeed coming later this year, although it's not yet confirming all of the specs. More information is promised in the coming weeks.

Dell is introducing the thinnest and lightest workstation ever later this year. The Dell Precision M3800 is the first mobile workstation that is less than &frac34; of an inch, at 18mm, weighs only 4.5lbs and offers certified performance and dependability for creative professionals. We are not releasing or confirming any additional details today but stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Historically, Apple hasn't been one to offer sneak peeks of anything. That changed today with the next-generation Mac Pro -- likely a function of the fact that teasing such a machine couldn't possibly weaken sales of a desktop that hasn't been updated in a technological eternity. Waiting just outside of the concourse walls was one of the prototype cylinders, and it's perhaps the sexiest workstation this world has ever seen. All we know for now is that it'll make its debut "later this year," boasting four USB sockets, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, a full-size HDMI connector, a 3.5mm headphone port and a pair of gigabit Ethernet ports. And yes, it's almost certainly a fingerprint magnet. Have a gander at the eye candy below (plus a vid after the break), and our apologies for the clear case surrounding it. We attempted to remove it, and we're now being forced to type this post with just a single hand.

AMD gave us a tease of its next-generation Steamroller architecture in 2012, but things weren't looking good for pro users when the initial timeline had current-generation Piledriver technology as the focus for Opterons in 2013. Thanks to a newer investor presentation, there's a glimmer of hope for the workstation and server users among us. Its roadmap shows Steamroller-equipped Opteron variants arriving this year, with an Excavator follow-up coming at an undetermined point in the future. There's nothing about specific timelines and models, as you might imagine -- AMD isn't going to spoil its plans quite so readily -- but the presentation reminds us that Steamroller will put an emphasis on the parallelism that's oh so vital to high-end computing. We're mostly glad to hear that IT backrooms will have something genuinely new to play with while we're off enjoying its Kaveri counterpart at home.

We already knew the current line of Mac Pros would be discontinued in Europe due to new regulatory standards come March 1st, but we didn't think Apple would pull the plug on its tower desktop this early. According to 9to5Mac, several European Apple Online Stores now show its Mac Pros as "currently unavailable" a couple of weeks before the computers are to be sunsetted. We're not sure if this is the case with machines in brick-and-mortar locales, but Europeans keen on the existing Mac Pro should get to their nearest reseller before it's completely out of stock. Either that or you can choose to sit tight and wait for that impending Mac Pro refresh, whenever the folks in Cupertino get around to it.

Apple has hinted that it will give Mac Pro aficionados some love with a professional Mac follow-up sometime this year. For Europeans, though, it might not come soon enough: the company has confirmed that it's officially stopping sales of the current Mac Pro in European Union-affiliated countries as of March 1st. Why? Soon-to-be-implemented tougher standards require that companies shield their fans and electrical ports more thoroughly than we see in the existing system, Apple says. While there's no immediate sign of a replacement, prospective customers who want the tower for projects won't be completely left out -- resellers will be free to sell what stock they have after the cutoff date. That might still be small consolation to European pros who need heavier iron for their tasks than an iMac.

AMD's advantage these days most often rests in datacenters that thrive on the chip designer's love of many-core processors, so it was almost surprising that the company brought its Piledriver architecture to the mainstream before turning to the server room. It's closing that gap now that the Opteron 6300 is here. The sequel to the 6200 fits into the same sockets and consumes the same energy as its ancestor, but speeds ahead through Piledriver's newer layout and instructions -- if you believe AMD, as much as 24 percent faster in one performance test, 40 percent in performance per watt and (naturally) a better deal for the money than Intel's Xeon. Whether that's true or just marketing bluster, there's a wide spread of chips that range from a quad-core, 3.5GHz example to a 16-core, 2.8GHz beast for massively parallel tasks. Cray, Dell, HP and others plan to boost their servers before long, although the surest proof of the 6300's success from our perspective may be that everything in the backroom runs just as smoothly as it did yesterday.

It's been almost exactly a year since we first heard about NVIDIA's Maximus technology, and today the firm's just announced an update. The second generation of the platform is now supported by Kepler-based GPUs. This time around computational tasks get ferried off to the SMX-streaming K20 GPU ($3,199 MSRP,) leaving the 3,840 x 2,160 resolution-supporting Quadro K5000 GPU ($2,249) to tackle the graphical functions. Want to know when you can get your hands on the goods? Well, NVIDIA says starting December, with the Quadro K5000 available as a standalone in October. Head down to the PR for the full spin and forthcoming workstation / OEM details.

We're still unsure as to whether or not Apple's rumored Mac update smorgasbord will come to pass at WWDC, but if any of it pans out, it looks to be the almost mythological Mac Pro update. A trio of model numbers for a "K5BPLUS" have popped up that 9to5 Mac claims are the base, mid-range and high-end configurations for the long-sought workstations. The part numbers don't include details, though talk of similar pricing to what we know today would point to Intel's Xeon E5-2600 (itself a long story) taking the reins as the processor. If there's any truth to the talk, the new Mac Pro could be ready to sell just as WWDC kicks off next week -- a mention supported by rumors of Apple recalling what little Mac Pro stock it keeps at retail stores. Not that a few extra days would matter, knowing how long prospective buyers have had to wait.

Update: Just when we thought we were clear, another Apple laptop spec sheet of unknown provenance has appeared. Posted by 9to5 Mac (2), it suggests a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2560x1600 Retina display, 16GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM plus an AMD Radeon HD 7770M graphics core with 2GB of RAM and auto switching to integrated Intel video. Droolworthy bullet points to be sure, but until we have more concrete evidence prospective upgraders should keep their credit cards set to stun.

HP has been rolling out a steady stream of Ivy Bridge-based upgrades over the past few weeks, and now it's the turn of the pro-oriented EliteBook W-series to get the long-awaited upgrade. The 8470W, 8570W and 8770W draw on Intel's faster dual Core i5 and quad Core i7 chips with respective choices of 14-, 15.6- and 17.3-inch screens. All of them pack AMD's FirePro for video duties, although big spenders at the larger two sizes can opt for one of NVIDIA's Quadro K-series graphics chips as well as an IPS-based display for color-sensitive work. Options will get you niceties such as a 24GB SSD cache, 3G and up to 16GB of RAM, although the EliteBooks' signature military-spec resistances to dust, shock and temperature are thankfully par for the course. The range costs $1,329, $1,449 and $1,699 as you move up the screen size ladder, and all three will be available before June is over.

If you prefer your workstations to be more powerful but slightly more stationary, you're still welcome in HP's world: the equally fresh Z220 desktop carries Intel's new quad-core Xeon E3 processor or, if that's a bit too rich for your blood, a Pentium or quad Core i7. AMD FirePro and NVIDIA Quadro video cards are both made-to-order upgrades, and the modern underpinnings add both USB 3.0 as well as headroom for up to 32GB of RAM, if the fear of paging to disk keeps you awake at night. HP has both tower and small form factor versions of the Z220 starting off at $699, and they too will be ready to stretch IT budgets later this month.

Workstations aren't normally our focus, but when Dell shows off a new Precision system that lets four media pros share its graphics hardware at once, you can be sure the company has our attention. If your IT chief springs for a Precision R5500 with four Quadro 2000 cards, each of those cards can take advantage of a graphics pass-through in Citrix's virtualization to render 3D models at speeds much more like what you'd get if the Quadro were sitting in your own PC. Before you have visions of four-player Modern Warfare parties after-hours at work, the inherent barriers of distance and the virtual machine itself will likely rule out any game sessions. We'd add that the Quadro, Xeon processor and the $2,742 minimum price make it an expensive proposition. That engineering simulation will finish a lot faster, though, giving you a bit more time to play back home.

Don't let that headline fool you: although Lenovo technically just unveiled one product, the ThinkStation E31 workstation, it actually shoehorned two distinct machines into one press release. Behold: a budget workstation available as a conventionally sized tower, as well as compact one. Whichever you choose, both support up to 32GB of RAM and are available with either an Intel Xeon E3-1200 CPU or a range of Ivy Bridge processors. Regardless of the size, you'll get nine USB ports, including four of the 3.0 variety. And, in addition to Windows 7 / XP, they're Windows 8-ready, and can run Red Hat as well.

It's at this juncture, though, that the specs start to diverge, with the heftier machine naturally offering more expandability. The full-size tower, for instance, can accommodate up to three HDDs, or 9TB of hard drive storage, while the smaller number makes room for two HDDs, or 6TB of space. (Either way, you can opt for solid-state drives.) On the graphics front, both will be offered with Intel's HD P4000 solution, but the upgrade options once again differ: expect a max offering of NVIDIA Quadro Q4000 graphics on the tower, and Quadro Q600 on the smaller guy. Intrigued? Both systems will start at $629, with the fuller-sized tower arriving on June 5th and the compact model following on June 13th.

Those guys and gals at iFixit love nothing more than destroying something beautiful and, in the process, finding out exactly what makes it tick. The latest victim of their reckless deconstructive tendencies is HP's Z1. The all-in-one turns out to be just as beautiful on the inside as it is outside. The components aren't haphazardly tossed inside the tight enclosure or soldered in place. The impressively repairable and replaceable parts all slide out easily, with at most the turn of a few screws. Only the LCD and glass pane posed an obstacle, but even that turned out to be relatively simple to remove. For more photos of the tiny workstation torn asunder, check out the source link.

We've seen iHome launch a multitude of sleek and useful peripherals aimed at the army of slabs out there, and its newest creation isn't an exception. Dubbed the iDM5 Executive, this workstation's designed to make typing on one of those iPads or Tabs a whole lot easier by giving you access to a full set of physical QWERTY keys. Aside from the keyboard, the iDM5's also packing Bluetooth capabilities alongside a 3.5mm audio jack, so despite the "i" shining from the outfit's name, the add-on isn't exclusive to iOS devices. Furthermore, iHome added two USB ports, allowing you to keep the juice flowing on your smartphone / tablet while getting some "work" done. The iDM5 is priced at a hefty $129.99 and you can snatch it up from the iHome site linked below.

We'll hand it to HP -- "power without the tower" is pretty fab. And so is that drop-dead gorgeous 27-inch IPS panel dominating the front of its Z1 workstation. Designed to handle stresses normally thrown exclusively at floor-sitting wind tunnels, the Z1 offers up Intel Core i3 or Xeon server-class CPUs, NVIDIA Quadro graphics, USB 3.0 sockets, a slot-loading Blu-ray writer, SSD / RAID options, support for over a billion colors and a seductive starting tag of just $1,899. Intrigued? Hit the source link to get your order in.

You've heard of Fusion-io, right? It produces super-SSDs with the teeth-whitening ioMemory that's so fast it can manage a billion input and output operations every second. Now it's bundling that gear into a workstation PCIe card for FX professionals and speed-conscious multi millionaires. Capable of delivering 1.5GB/s (we checked, GB/s) of bandwidth, it's capable of previewing 3D movie effects on the fly. The gear's even managed to cover itself in Academy awards after it was used by studio Pixomondo on the special effects for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo." A 420GB model will arrive in late Spring, setting you (or more likely, your departmental budget) back $2,495 with an inclusive one-year support contract.

If you fancy yourself a power user, HP's got a "world's first" trick up its sleeve that might lure you in. Earlier today, the Palo Alto outfit took the wraps off its newest all-in-one, the HP Z1. This workstation is a mere distant cousin to HP's consumer-focused Omni and TouchSmart lines -- not that that's a bad thing. The machine comes sporting a 27-inch, 2560 x 1440, IPS display, the back of which snaps open for easy access when making hardware tweaks and, if you wisely choose to take the premium road, you could be walking out with a quad-core Intel Xeon CPU and NVIDIA Quadro graphics, as well as your choice of a 160GB or 300GB SSD for storage. Needless to say, it all depends on how much dough you're willing to part with. HP says the Z1 is expected to ship around April, with the lowest-end model starting at $1,899. It'll be a while before you can get your hands on one, but in the meantime you can keep yourself entertained by checking out those glossy press shots below.

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all-in-onehewlett-packardhphp z1 all-in-onehp z1 desktophp z1 workstationHpZ1All-in-oneHpZ1DesktopHpZ1Workstationworkstationz1z1 all-in-onez1 workstationZ1All-in-oneZ1WorkstationTue, 14 Feb 2012 16:16:00 -050021|20171786http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/nvidias-maximus-technology-packs-cpu-and-gpu-warrior-powers/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Back in August, NVIDIA sneaked us a few deets about its curious Maximus project, and now the joint CPU / GPU card is officially ready to rev up your workflow. The idea is simple: dramatically improve productivity by using one system to handle the graphics along with the processing to deliver it. You might say it's got the looks and the brains. By melding the graphics ham of its Quadro GPUs with the cheesy smarts from the Tesla C2075, NVIDIA has made one epic processing sandwich that 'transparently' delegates tasks to the right processor; also expect to see Maximus-optimized applications from the likes of Adobe and Bunkspeed in the not-too-distant future. Workstations can supe up their core immediately, but whether the Maximus will ever be accompanied by a companion Biggus Diskus is unclear.

Update: As many of you pointed out in the comments, Tesla is technically still a GPU. Though, in this case, the cores are being used exclusively for general computing purposes to offload work from the CPU while the Quadro half of the equation handles graphical tasks.

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C2075cpuCUDAdesktopGPUham and cheeseHamAndCheesemaximusnvidianvidia maximusnvidia quadroNVIDIA Quadro 600nvidia teslaNVIDIA Tesla C2075NvidiaMaximusNvidiaQuadroNvidiaQuadro600NvidiaTeslaNvidiaTeslaC2075processorquadroteslaworkstationMon, 14 Nov 2011 19:57:00 -050021|20106126http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/01/shuttle-launches-xpc-h7-5820s-mini-pc-for-your-collection-of-16/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Wondering what do with those 16 monitors you've got lying around your house? Well, the folks over at Shuttle have just come out with a mouthful of a solution, known as the XPC H7 5820S. Shuttle's latest mini-PC is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor with up to six cores, boasts 16GB of RAM and features a pair of 1TB hard disks. The workstation, compatible with Windows 7, also ships with a Blu-ray burner and packs Matrox's M-Series multi-display graphics cards, allowing users to work across 16 different displays at once, at resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 per screen. All this goodness is nestled within a box that's just 7.5 inches tall, though it won't come for cheap. According to SlashGear, the XPC H7 5820S is now available for a cool €1,446, or about $1,983. Find out more at the source link below, or in the full PR, waiting for you after the break.

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16GB2560 x 16002560X1600availabilitycomputingCPUdisplaygraphicsgraphics cardGraphicsCardhard diskHardDiskHexaCoreIntel Core i7IntelCoreI7matroxmatrox graphicsMatrox M-SeriesMatroxGraphicsMatroxM-seriesmini PCMiniPcmultitaskingpriceRAMresolutionshuttleShuttle XPC H7 5820SShuttleXpcH75820sworkstationXPCTue, 01 Nov 2011 09:38:00 -040021|20095326http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/iluv-unveils-workstation-docks-turns-your-ipad-2-galaxy-tab-i/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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We've seen all shapes and sizes of iPad cases, with varying degrees of utility. But, if you have use for a desktop PC-style dock / keyboard combo, you may want to check out some of the new offerings in iLuv's WorkStation Series. First up is the iMM737, featuring a wired keyboard with iOS function keys that can be stowed in the dock's base when you're not typing away, a tilting / rotating bracket for easy customization and built-in speakers. Next, the iMM517 boasts an adjustable slate holder of its own, a Bluetooth keypad and jAura Sound technology. Need something a wee bit more portable? Perhaps the iCK826 or the iSK912 Professional WorkStation Portfolio cases will suit your workflow. Both offer a wireless set of keys that are detachable, should the need arise. Only looking for a keyboard? That's an option too with the iBTKB20. You can grab any one of these you'd like for $180 to $50, from top to bottom. You'll have to wait until November to pick up the iMM737, though -- everything else will be hitting stores this month. Check out the gallery below for a look at all the above mentioned add-ons, or peep the full PR after the break.